


Glitter and the Songs

by FluffyLlamacorn



Category: Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Characters Watching Star Wars, Eurovision, F/F, M/M, danish humor, eurovision au, language humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-08 10:10:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6850459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FluffyLlamacorn/pseuds/FluffyLlamacorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec’s song is a somber ballad with a simple stage show. Magnus’ song includes confetti cannons and ridiculous lightshows. Obviously, they’re destined to meet. Eurovision AU<br/>Meanwhile, both Izzy and Jace attempts to woo Clary, but only one succeeds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Alec has a vision with his song. It’s calm and sophisticated and yes, a Eurovision song is allowed to be those things, Izzy, come on. It has a message about peace and forgiveness that everyone can benefit from hearing and the stage show is simple, just Alec and his siblings on stage with each of their instruments.

”Uhm, no,” Izzy interrupts his explanation. “If I’m joining you on the stage, I’m doing more than pretend to play guitar.”

“Who says you have to pretend?” Alec asks.

“Everyone knows it’s playback, Alec,” Jace reminds him. “And I’m with Izzy, it sounds hella boring for us.”

”The song sounds amazing,” Izzy offers. “It’s super you and I look forward to hearing the final product. I’m just not going to be on that stage without contributing.”

“It wouldn’t be the same without you,” Alec says.

”Are you aware that other people have background dancers?” Jace asks.

“That... would be more fun for you?” Alec asks. How is that different?

”Uh, yes?” Jace smiles like Alec said something silly.

”Much more,” Izzy smiles. ”As long as I don’t just need to stand there and twirl, but actually get to do something.”

“Ooooooooh, the song is about fighting, so we could do martial arts in the background,” Jace suggests.

“The song is about not fighting with each other,” Alec corrects.

“So we stop when we get your message,” Izzy tells him. “This is great.”

“I can be shirtless, show off my abs,” Jace offers.

“ **No** ,” Alec says in a very definite tone.

“Come on,” Izzy laughs. “Don’t you want twelve points?”

“Yes, of course,” Alec sighs. “But I want to deserve them with the song, the show, not just because Jace has ridiculously defined abs.”

“They _are_ quite impressive,” Jace smirks smugly.

Alec sighs and starts reconsidering the scenography. He rewatches some old songs that he likes to really understand what’s too much and what works and specifically what will work for his song. A big lightshow isn’t his style, he already knows. Too noisy. Noisy can be good to a certain degree, but it can easily end up stealing attention from the song, which is silly when it’s a song contest.

Alec gets a new idea that pulls the martial art into the metaphors of the song. It isn’t completely done yet, so he changes some things to imply a fight going on all around him and stopping towards the end of the song. Izzy and Jace fight back and forth in the background during the first part of the song and after a long internal debate, Alec accepts that it works even better with a smoke machine to obscure them to begin with. Not a whole lot, just enough that you don’t notice them initially. They grow more and more noticeable during the song as the smoke clears and their movements grow wilder and their fight takes up more of the stage until finally, in the interlude before the last chorus, they take over the stage and Alec draws back.

”Nice, so me and Izzy can just go crazy?” Jace asks with a very satisfied when Alec shares the updates to the song.

“Yeah, more or less,” Alec agrees. “I mean, until she kills you.”

“What!?” Jace exclaims.

“Yes!” Izzy laughs. ”My secret dream!"

“Hey!” Jace sounds very hurt.

“Jace, how would it look if the blonde, white guy kills the latina girl?” Alec asks. ”Even if we frame it as completely wrong, it’s not something to play around with.”

“Who says we have to kill anyone?” Jace grumbles.

”It’s obviously important for Alec’s narrative about forgiveness,” Izzy explains to Jace before turning her attention to Alec. “But have you thought about what you’re implying by making the brownest member of the group the villain?”

Alec pulls a face. “I am now. But... It’s not like we know what you’re fighting for, right? You might as well be the hero who finally won her battle.”

“Not if the morale is that war is bad,” Izzy reminds him.

”No, you’re right, but maybe...” It would be a new idea, a whole new element, but that had worked out great last time. “Maybe I stop you before you kill each other?”

“I do like surviving,” Jace says.

“That sounds cool,” Izzy says. “How?”

“Uhm…”

***

Magnus is studying the competition as he has been chosen as the second ever representative of Australia in Eurovision, an honor he could never even have started imagining just a couple of years ago. He has been a fan of the show for as long as he can remember, and had been extremely excited when his country was allowed to enter last year, even more so when it was decided that they would get to return.

And then it had turned out that Magnus would be the one to return. That had been an exciting day.

When Magnus studies his competition it's half a question of sizing up his competitors and half a question of just really loving Eurovision, okay? The Danish team is the next on his list and the song seems like one of those too serious ballads that bring everyone down, but the singer is hot, so he'll allow it. Actually, he's... _Very_ hot. Those close ups must catch him from his best angles.

It’s obvious how much he loves his song from the way he's singing and Magnus is so distracted by his pretty face that he doesn't notice the background dancers until they take up the majority of the screen. They're fighting with fancy martial arts tricks and Magnus vaguely remembers them fighting in the background earlier. It looks convincing, the battle. They're obviously practiced stunt people.

They fight and break apart, walking backwards towards the sides of the stage. The light focuses on Hot Singer again, who is kneeling in the middle of the stage, smoke billowing at his feet. He's carrying a bow and wearing a quiver as he stands up again. He sings something about forgiveness and how fighting never solves anything, then shoots the two fighters, which sends all sorts of mixed messages until Magnus realizes he didn't pretend kill them, he legitimately shot through the sleeves of their black jackets and hit a wall right behind them. They were stuck, unable to fight anymore without anyone getting hurt.

Magnus' jaw falls open, because that sort of coordination is _hot_ and faking that convincingly would probably be harder than actually doing it. He rewinds the video to watch it a couple more times and yes, he definitely actually shot those arrows.

 _Shit_.

He continues watching as Ridiculously Hot Singer sings some more about forgiveness and then the two fighters, their jackets still hanging on the walls, join him and harmonize with his singing and wait a minute, they weren't stunt people? Were these three stunning people legitimately both musically and physically talented? That's not fair.

Magnus goes to the description of the video for the information about the group he had missed before the song started and likes a comment about how ridiculously hot that was while he's at it. The group is called _Alec and the Lightwoods_ and he immediately searches for other videos with them on Youtube. The first video that comes up and isn’t the song is a short introductory video that probably played before their song during the Danish show.

Magnus clicks it and is glad to see that someone has been kind enough to make English subtitles. The first clip is a close up of the young woman laughing in front of an all white background, her gorgeous, dark hair bouncing with her movements. The next is the blonde guy walking down a street a Dane would probably be able to recognize, looking like he owns the place, before, finally, there's a clip of Ridiculously Hot Singer smiling crookedly at someone off screen. It's a halfway amused, halfway disappointed smile, the kind most of Magnus' friends have had around him during their friendship. There's the same white background as behind the woman in the first clip. " _Alec and the Lightwoods_ , normally playing as _The Lightwoods,_ consist of Alec, Izzy and Jace Lightwood," a speaker announces in Danish, while showing short clips of Alec shooting an arrow and Izzy kicking Jace in the side before he manages to catch her and throw her on the mat of a dojo. "Some of you may recognize the Lightwood name from their parents and the three siblings certainly have big shoes to fill out as they enter the music business, but they keep proving that they’ll outshine them before long." There's a short clip of a large house, before it switches to all three of them in the white background, laughing and smiling at each other. Magnus watches Alec and when he throws his head back and laughs at something one of his siblings had done, Magnus is pretty sure his heart skips a beat.

All in all, the video is less than a minute, but Magnus is pretty sure he falls in love before it finishes.

The second search result is an interview that Magnus opens within moments. It was filmed shortly after they won the qualification to Eurovision and politely subtitled as well. "I'm here with _Alec and the Lightwoods_ , who will be representing us at Eurovision this year," the female host says and introduces each of them by name. Magnus has guessed that Alec would be the singer, but it's nice to have it confirmed. "First of all, congratulations on winning. It was well deserved."

"Thank you," Alec says. There's an expression on his face like he still can't believe it actually happened.

"So talk to me about the process. Why did you change your name?"

"Oh, that's just temporary," Alec says. "And for the record, I was against it."

"But we were two against one," Izzy reminds him with a smirk. "The song is Alec's work. We normally work together on everything, but this one was his vision and his hard work. We got to have input, but he was the one who translated it into concrete results. It just felt wrong not to give him top billing." Magnus doesn't know the first thing about Danish, but he can hear a Spanish tilt to her voice compared to the other Danes. She sounds much more melodic when she speaks.

The interview goes on and Magnus watches another and another. He might have gone a bit more in depth with this group than he did for the others, but by the end of his several hours long research spree he knows just about everything that can be found about Alexander Gideon Lightwood online. Magnus can admit that he gets obsessed when he falls for someone, partly because his friends have told him often enough that it must be true. That doesn’t mean he tries to stop himself, though.

Magnus did think that he would become less prone to celebrity crushes once he became one himself, but alas, no. It simply means he actually has a chance of meeting and befriending and possibly even seducing them, especially when he crushes on his upcoming competitors who he will be spending a good couple of weeks among in Sweden.

Shit, he is actually going to meet him. Whatever. Magnus is smooth. He can hide enormous crushes easily. Besides, there’s still a month or two before the actual competition. He can have gotten over it by then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said my next fic would be another Thinkfast, but apparently I can only finish fics when I have a deadline, so let's get this party started before Eurovision is over!  
> As a Dane, I had to consider who would get to be Denmark and decided on the Lightwoods since they dress in all black and then I looked up the Danish song and holy shit, they dress exactly like shadowhunters, it's ridiculous. I mean, look at them! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abiss5VZn14  
> Speaking of being Danish, I've initially been writing Alec's perspective in Danish as an experiment and I'm planning on uploading them as well. Would anyone be interested in reading those?  
> Thanks to Catneto for beta reading.


	2. Chapter 2

”Australia’s checking you out,” Izzy says in Danish.

“The entire country?” Alec asks.

“Mmhmmm,” she confirms. “You’re _very_ pretty.”

Alec sighs a lot when he’s hanging out with his siblings and this is no exception. They are at an information meeting about what’s going to happen during the next couple of busy weeks regarding rehearsals of light and sound before the semifinals and the finale itself. Jace slept through his alarm, which was Alec’s first reason to sigh today. Alec doesn’t get how he can be that calm, when they still don’t have any way of knowing they’ll make it to the finale. It’s terrifying and Alec needs to distract himself from it, but looking over at Australia would probably just make him more nervous. “I don’t understand why you studied everyone else,” he says instead. “It’s not like a martial arts tournament where you can change your technique based on your opponent. Your song won’t be any better just because you know if the other person sings pop or jazz.”

This time Izzy is the one to sigh. “Alec, there are other things in the world than singing. Flirting, for example.”

Alec raises an eyebrow. ”How does listening to their song help you flirt?”

Izzy rolls her eyes. “This is why you’re single, bro. There are interviews to use as well. For example. The Estonian hottie? Total art geek. That makes pick up lines based on art history super effective on her.”

”Of course,” Alec smirks. ”Good luck with that.”

“Alec, when you’re as pretty as us and have as good technique as me, you don’t need luck,” Izzy smiles confidently and it’s true. It’s rare Izzy doesn’t score.

This is in stark contrast to Alec. Alec might technically have been rejected fewer times than Izzy, but that’s only because he never really tries. A couple of drunk make out sessions had been enough to confirm what he had figured out about himself, but no matter how accepting show business might be of gay people, his parents aren’t. They can almost survive both Izzy and Jace being bi, by convincing themselves it’s just a phase and they’ll grow up into proper, mature heterosexual people eventually. The only reason they aren’t rushing them (much) is because they already have one straight child to rely on. They think.

The problem with working in show business is that there are an improbable amount of hot guys to threaten Alec’s well kept secret.

This becomes especially relevant once the meeting is done. Most people start leaving, but Australia, who is apparently a man of Asian descent, walks confidently over to him and his sister. He offers a hand that Alec takes without thinking about it. He’s too distracted by his face, specifically his make-up and smile. “Alexander and Isabelle Lightwood, if I am not mistaken?” he says and he doesn’t sound particularly Australian. He sounds melodic, like he’s singing even when speaking.

“Uh-huh,” Alec says and realizes that A) his mouth is hanging open and B) he was still shaking his hand. He closes his mouth and pulls his hand back immediately, but hopefully not so suddenly it seems rude.

“That’s us,” Izzy says with a beaming smile while she quickly, but surely shakes his hand. “I’ve been looking forwards to meeting you, Magnus Bane.”

“Oh, really?” Magnus asks. His entire face moves as he talks and Alec has a hard time looking away as his eyebrows move around his face.

"Oh course," Izzy smiles sweetly. "Your song is amazing. It might even have a chance of winning somewhere else."

Magnus’ smile is dangerous, but entertained. "You know, that sounds an awful lot like a challenge."

"It's a fact," Izzy says. "We're Danes in Sweden. You're going down."

"Izzy and Jace have this idea that since, uh, Denmark won the last two times Eurovision was in Sweden, we're destined to win this time," Alec explains, still staring at Magnus and his make-up. There’s glitter around his eyes and it catches the light every time he moves. "I just hope we'll make it to the finale."

"Oh, you will," Magnus says like it’s already been decided. "Your song is amazing. How do you do the thing with the arrows? There must be some sort of trick, right?"

Alec shrugs. "Years of practice?"

Magnus smiles at Alec and something changes. Suddenly Alec forgets to worry about the future and he’s pretty sure he smiles back. He’s not really aware of anything, but how nice Magnus’ smile is.

Which is of course right when Jace finally shows up and breaks the spell. He slams the door open with a loud “Sorry I’m late, I-“ and stops when he sees the room is empty except from  a couple of different groups still talking with each other. He walks over to his siblings. “Guess I slept through the entire thing,” he mumbles. He sounds like he’s at least vaguely ashamed.

"Jace," Izzy says and continues in Danish. "Alec found himself a boyfriend. We can’t ruin this for him."

"Izzy!" Alec snaps, his checks suddenly very hot. It takes him a moment to realize he might not be dead and returns his attention to Magnus. "You don't speak Danish, right?" He really hopes he doesn’t speak Danish.

"Not a word," Magnus smiles and Alec feels a moment of relief. "But I think I got the gist of it anyway." He fucking winks at him. Not an obvious, childish signal like if Alec had tried, but a natural and fluid part of his flirting repertoire. Alec’s mouth falls open again because why should so gorgeous a man be interested in him?

"Me and Jace are gonna go talk art with the Estonians," Izzy announces and points at the two Estonians discussing something in the other side of the room. "See you later."

"Hell, she's practically a work of art herself," Jace says.

"You should lead with that," Izzy smiles while pulling him away.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." It isn’t nice of Izzy to set him up for failure, but on the other hand, Jace should know by now not to trust Izzy’s flirting advice when she’s just as interested in the same person.

"That sounds like a train wreck waiting to happen," Magnus notices.

"Yeah, and then Izzy picks up the pieces." Alec rolls his eyes. "She's not a nice wingman."

"To neither of you?" Magnus smiles.

"Øhm," Alec says, mainly because he doesn’t know what else to do. "I, uh, I mean, she can be a nice wingman-person. When she feels like it. But not- Well, it depends on her mood and intention. She's, you know. Complicated."

"Of course," Magnus says. "Everyone have multiplicities to them. Do you feel like telling me a bit about your own over a drink?"

"Uh," Alec mumbles. "I, well, uh, that is to say, I mean... Now?" He has no clue what his voice is doing. Especially that last word is way too high pitched, he isn’t supposed to be a tenor.

"That sounds lovely," Magnus smiles and is it possible to say no to that smile?

***

Okay. It's happening. Magnus has a date with Alexander Lightwood. Well, technically it's not officially a date because he isn't out enough to call it a date when there might be cameras watching and technically they've already had drinks before BUT THEY'RE GOING ON A DATE TONIGHT. Magnus is excited. For all that Alexander doesn't want to come out to the public, which Magnus completely understands, they're having dinner at the hotel's nice restaurant, alone and together, and with the clear possibility of kissing once they get back to their own rooms.

Obviously, Magnus spends the rest of the day designing his outfit.

In the end he goes with a tight t-shirt with a meaningful quote and some Danish aesthetics from the letters that he got specifically to be a conversation starter, some tight jeans and a jacket in a golden color that highlights his shoulders. His make-up gets to be noticeable with golden eyeshadow that goes with his jacket, though not so dramatic it takes attention away from him. He adds some glitter to his lips, because Alexander did seem to like that earlier. His hair gets styled upwards in a spike full of volume. By the time he’s done with all of that, there is around half an hour before they have agreed to meet and that’s just fashionably early, right?

He takes a moment to go over his schedule for the following days, both to do something responsible that day and in case they're going to be planning more dates. It takes longer than he has expected, but he still arrives ten minutes before they have agreed. Alexander is already sitting at a table away from the entrance and next to the windows. They're on the tenth floor, so he has probably decided the chance of paparazzi outside is small enough to risk it. Besides, the more they seem like they're hiding anything, the more obvious it becomes that it's not just dinner with friends.

Alexander looks _nice_ in his white dress shirt and black pants. Magnus worries for a moment about underdressing, but Alexander eyes him appreciatively. He stops when he sees the text on his shirt through the open jacket and bites his lips, not from want, but from barely hidden amusement. Magnus frowns, but doesn't say anything before he reaches the table where he opens with a "You look wonderful."

"Thank you," Alexander smiles bashfully. "You too."

"But."

"What do you mean?" Alexander asks, trying awfully hard not to smile.

"You don't like my shirt," Magnus says casually as he leans back into his chair. "It's alright, I'll try not to take it personally."

"Your shirt is great," Alexander chuckles. "It's just. Are you aware it's funny?"

"Funny?" Magnus repeats. He's frowning. Overdone and clichéd, maybe, but funny? He looks down to make sure he's wearing what he thinks he's wearing. He is. "Do or die isn't _that_ overused a phrase."

"It doesn't say do or die," Alec interrupts, still fighting that smile. Magnus wishes he wouldn't. "It says dø or die."

Magnus raises an eyebrow. "Whatever do you mean?"

"The line through the o makes it an ø. It says dø or die," Alec explains.

Magnus doesn't mention that he specifically chose it because he knew that, because there's obviously something he doesn't know. "And?"

"Dø means die," Alexander explains. "Your shirt says die or die."

"Oh," Magnus chuckles. Well. The shirt had succeeded as a conversation starter even if it wasn’t in the intended way.

"Yeah," Alec agrees as he looks down at his menu, finally letting his smile show on his lips, so rudely hidden by the menu.

"I guess I _do_ know a word of Danish now," Magnus continues and Alec chuckles. "Are there any other words I should avoid?"

"Well..." Alexander considers. "Don't call your bae a bæ, you know, with the combined letter, unless you want to call them a piece of shit."

"Especially good to know when you're trying to get a Danish bae," Magnus smirks as he picks up his own menu. He looks at Alec just long enough to challenge him into blushing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, congratulations Ukraine!  
> I changed the title of the story because the last one was super boring. Here's a (slightly) better one. (I'm not gonna keep changing the title, don't worry.)  
> Thank you so much for all of the response, it makes me super happy! :D  
> Finally, Magnus' shirt was inspired by http://fluffyllamacorn.tumblr.com/post/138209041798/catsnuggler-useless-swedenfacts
> 
> Another thank you to Catneto for betareading


	3. Chapter 3

"So, what's your song like?" Alec had asked like the big idiot he was.

Magnus just blinked. "You mean you don't know?"

"I stopped researching musical competition a while ago," Alec explained. "It just made me more nervous."

“In that case I think it might be better to make you wait, then,” Magnus teased.

“Excuse me?”

“I wouldn’t want to make you nervous before your big day,” Magnus said sweetly. “You should wait until you can watch it in real life.”

“You can’t be serious,” Alec had tried.

“I believe you’ll find me plenty capable of that.”

And after that conversation on their first not-quite-a-date Magnus has refused to tell him anything about his song until Alec has seen for himself at his first dress rehearsal. Not only that, but he’s managed to get both Izzy and Jace to help him keep the secret. Traitors, all of them. So when Alec sits down in one of the front rows with Izzy at his side to watch his kinda-sorta-almost boyfriend, he barely has any clue what to expect.

Now, he knows Magnus. He knows his dramatic style and overdone make up and love for glitter and how perfectly that fits a camp Eurovision song, but he also knows that it’s not all Magnus is. Izzy has been talking a lot with Clary, the Estonian art nerd, and while her googling kept her from making a fool of herself as quickly as Jace, Magnus can actually keep up with her when she really starts discussing old painters. What’s more, they don’t just name drop famous people, they actually discuss the color choices in their individual paintings without a picture to reference. There’s a depth to him, something Alec has always found missing from the joke songs, but to be fair, he’s never known the artists behind them.

The only thing Alec really knows for sure is that it’s bound to be impressive.

The song starts with a distinct drum beat and a spot light on Magnus. He’s wearing a grey suit and a lot of gold glitter around his eyes. He’s smirking before he starts singing and when he does… Magnus almost sounds like he’s singing when he speaks. Alec almost doesn’t comprehend how smooth his voice is when he’s actually singing. The spotlight is still on him and only him and the drums are the only sound beyond his voice. Then he starts to walk forwards.

Alec can’t keep his eyes off Magnus as he moves. It’s not a dance, not officially, but Magnus was a dancer before he became a singer and that’s obvious. All of his movements, even the most spontaneous parts of his everyday life, look like a well choreographed dance. Right now it actually is and Alec doesn’t understand how he’s able to make walking forward look so beautiful.

Magnus sings a couple more lines before stopping at the front of the stage and he’s... He’s powerful. Just standing there for a moment, letting the drums continue to beat, but keep everything else waiting until his signal, almost asking the world who dares disturb him… The moment probably only lasts a couple of seconds, but to Alec it feels like it goes on forever. Magnus is smiling smugly and takes a moment to look straight at Alec before singing another line about… Uh, Alec has sort of not been paying proper attention to the actual words? But anyway, while singing he raises his hand and snaps his fingers and- Wow.

Where Alec had decided to keep his lightshow simple, Magnus appears to have gone in the opposite direction. As he snaps his fingers, a ring of blue light extends from around him and lights the whole scene up and a new layer of instruments adds to the music, making it sound more like a normal Eurovision song. Back up dancers enter the stage wearing neutral colors and moving rigidly. Magnus’ suit looks more silver than grey in the new light.

Magnus dances for the chorus, deliberate movements that echo through his entire body. Alec does martial arts, but he still can’t comprehend having that much control of one’s body when dancing. It’s just another way Magnus blows his mind.

The music calms a bit down for the second verse, but doesn’t strip all the way down to the drum beat. The instruments are still there, but the crescendo is over. It’s less overpowering and there’s a better focus on Magnus’ voice again. Now that Alec is aware he wasn’t paying attention, he can focus on the words that turn out to be about being yourself and defying the boxes people try to put you in, except with better metaphors than that.

Magnus winks at Alec as he snaps his fingers again and it’s unfair how much that affects him. Another blue wave of light goes through the stage at the cue and all of the background dancers react to it like a physical force. Much more importantly, however, is the fact that Magnus twirls around a couple of times and suddenly his suit jacket is gone. His shirt is almost open with a lot of long necklaces hanging down and his pants look significantly tighter, though Alec has no clue how he could have changed those so quickly. His shirt’s sleeves are wide and flow with the movements of his dramatic gestures as he interacts with his background dancers.

In the first chorus, the dancers had ignored him when he reached out, continuing with the steady dance, but now they react and let him change their path. He interacts with the first two directly, then gestures are enough until finally he has all ten of them dancing with him building up to a climax on the last note, which is punctuated by confetti canons.

It’s. Wow. The song is good, the lyrics are catchy and Magnus is way too good at rolling his hips to not make it to the top ten. Probably better, but Alec hasn’t seen the competition yet and he has a clear bias anyway, so he doesn’t want to get his hopes up.

***

Magnus is the last to rehearse on the big stage that day and he's got around an hour and a half before he needs to do a press meeting, which just about gives him time for dinner and doing his make up, but first he needs to hear what Alec thought. He had seemed very entranced during the performance, but that kind of opinion can change once the song is over.

The Lightwoods greet him backstage and Magnus can tell from the way Alec is staring at him that he might need to eat his dinner quickly. Magnus grins at him and he doesn't even have the presence of mind to blush, which is a good sign.

Izzy grins. "Jace and I are here to invite you to movie night since we don't trust Alec to remember to mention that on his own," she tells him. Movie night was a thing that had started as a part of Izzy and Jace's attempts to woo Clary and involved more cuddling than movies, especially for Magnus.

"Sounds lovely," Magnus smiles.

"Alec is here to tell you how much he enjoyed your song," Izzy nudges.

"Uh-huh," Alec mutters.

"Oh really?" Magnus grins. "How about we go get room service while you tell me all about it?" He winks for good measure, since he knows it drives Alec wild.

"Uh-huh," Alec repeats, barely reacting to the wink. Magnus figures that he must be too far gone to notice, which means it's time to find some privacy. He puts an arm around Alec's waist and leads him back down the hallway he'd just come to the nearest elevator.

"Somehow, I imagine they won't be using a lot of words," Jace says behind him.

"Yeah, but for a completely different reason that you and Clary," Izzy responds.

"Oh, that's a low blow."

Magnus doesn't pay them much more mind. The elevator is there and that's all the privacy Alec needs to show him how much he liked his song.

***

Magnus applies his own make up. Very few singers do that, but Magnus has demands and opinions and is at least as good as the make up artists available to him, so he does it himself whenever possible. He won’t for the actual show because of stress and nerves, but as often as possible.

Right now he’s doing it while eating a light dinner. Alec should eat something as well, but he doesn’t have a deadline and he mainly wants to lie in Magnus’ bed and look at him get ready, so that’s what he does. It’s not like he hasn’t distracted him enough, but it was so much fun it’s hard to feel bad.

It’s while lying there and watching Magnus that he realizes he isn’t a kinda-sorta-almost boyfriend, but a proper one. His boyfriend. Wow. ”Magnus?” he asks.

”Yes, darling?” Magnus responds while putting on eyeshadow, the motions so natural to him he can look away from the mirror for a moment.

"I like you, us, this," Alec says before he can stop himself with all of his logical thoughts.

Magnus smiles warmly and pause his hands for a moment – but only a single one because he has to leave in less than half an hour. "I hope you realize that the only reason I'm not kissing you some more is because I just redid my lipgloss."

Alec smiles again. It’s pretty great to have a boyfriend as lovely as Magnus.

***

Movie night is a tradition that started because Izzy wanted to impress Clary with her sophisticated movie interests, but very quickly turned into cuddling while watching Star Wars. For Alec and Magnus, movie nights consist of 80% cuddling, 10% pizza and 10% Star Wars. It’s pretty great.

Izzy and Clary sit in the middle of the room and Izzy has clearly won over Jace in the battle of who gets to hit on Clary, but that doesn’t mean she’s won her heart yet. Izzy has her arm around Clary’s shoulder and Clary is leaning into Izzy, but she still seems more interested in the movies that in Izzy. They decided to watch all seven Star Wars movies, one each night, mainly because they could and Simon, Clary’s friend and song partner who has also gotten invited, spent a long time explaining the optimal order, which Alec is pretty sure was named after some sort of knife? A dagger, maybe? Right now they’re watching the prequel trilogy, which should be terrible, but Alec is far too busy with Magnus to have opinions about it.

The two pairs leave Jace and Simon to sit together. They don’t technically need to sit in the same couch, but it has the best seats left, so. Jace must have noticed how close the rest of the audience is sitting, because he decides to complain. "If you even think about putting your arm around me, I'll break it."

"Yeah, like I was considering that," Simon shoots back.

“Hey, Alec?” Izzy mumbles, quietly enough that Jace can’t hear unless he really tries. Alec can hear from her intonation that she’ll continue in Danish. “Fifty crowns says those two will find a fun way to get rid of their aggressions before we go home.”

Alec scoffs. “One hundred it’ll be before the finale.”

“Not on the same night?” Izzy smirks.

“Nah, they’re too close.”

"Are you two talking about the least official couple in the room?" Magnus asks with a slight yawn. It was half past late and he’d done a fair bit today, so he didn’t try to stay entirely awake all movie long.

“Betting on when they become official," Izzy confirms.

"Wait, who are you talking about?" Clary asks and the other three look over to the last couch where Jace and Simon are fighting over a pillow. "I'm pretty sure Simon isn't into guys."

"Same way you were sure you weren't into girls?" Izzy asks with a wink.

"Besides," Magnus laughs softly. "Have you not seen the way he stares at Romania?" Romania is creatively enough doing a vampire theme, but at least they’re multicultural vampires.

"Doesn't he stare at Camille?" Clary asks.

"Not exclusively," Magnus says.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still planning on finishing this, I'm just. SO busy. Like wow. I won't have time to write on this for a while, but I will at the VERY least finish during next Eurovision season.  
> Thanks to Catneto for betareading :)


	4. Chapter 4

The Danish teams gets up early the next morning to get ready for their own sound test. Alec doesn’t try to make eye contact with Magnus during his song, rather the opposite. It would be inappropriate to sing the song with a stupid grin on his face. Magnus still seems to have enjoyed the show.

The next week continues much the same way. They have sound tests and practice all the various parts of their songs and the Lightwoods show Magnus, Clary and Simon around in Stockholm. The Lightwoods have been there many times, but it’s quite a long trip from Australia. Alec prefers their movie nights in their room because… Because just because he’s ready to admit to himself that he has a boyfriend, doesn’t mean he’s ready to admit it to the rest of the world and especially not to his parents. In public, Alec walks between Jace and Simon while Magnus walks on the opposite side of Jace so they won’t accidentally hold hands at inappropriate times. They resign themselves to sharing a lot of looks as the two other boys hate flirt throughout the day.

Alec isn’t entire sure what happened to the time, but suddenly it’s the tenth and the first semifinal is about to start and Clary and Simon are up. Both Denmark and Australia are in the second semifinal. Alec wishes he was in the first one so he could get it over with in case it’s all he gets – the suspense is killing him – but he has to wait two more days.

The only good thing is that it finally gives Alec a chance to see Clary and Simon’s song. It’s not like he couldn’t possibly have found time for it earlier, but his siblings hadn’t managed to drag him along to their practices and why should he watch on Youtube, when he can watch it live? It turns out to be a good song. Simon plays guitar while Clary sings about not taking anything for granted. It’s a happy, feel-good song with a catchy chorus. It’s very good at being a Eurovision song.

Alec isn’t surprised when they move on to the finale. He’s significantly better at believing in his friends than in himself.

Alec looks around when the Estonians return backstage for hugs and not to imply anything, but people were implying some stuff with the looks that were sent around. He decides to join Magnus when they go to their rooms late in the evening, but he also decides to eat breakfast at his own place, because he has a bet to win.

Which is why he’s sitting in the kitchen of their hotel room with his usual yoghurt when Jace tries to sneak back in. Their “room” is actually more of a small apartment: A combined entry hall and small kitchen (that Izzy thankfully hasn’t decided to use) and a bedroom for each of them. The walls aren’t soundproof enough to have evening visitors while other people are home, but it’s more than enough to live in for a couple of weeks.

“So how did it go?” Alec asks as casually as possible to announce his presence.

Jace drops his keys in surprise. “Fuck! Why are you already awake? Why are you already here? Didn’t you sleep at Magnus’ place?”

“Where did you sleep if you’re not sure?” Alec asks. He takes another spoonful of yoghurt, because it’s rude to smile that smugly at his own brother. The least he can do is try to hide it.

“Of course I knew it!” Jace halfway hisses as he picks his keys up. “It was just… You weren’t there last night or when- When I went out after… Uhm, but now you’re back, so I was just…”

“When you went out after what?” Alec asks innocently. He enjoys torturing his brother way too much, but to his defense, Jace and Izzy has spent much more time torturing him.

“The newspaper?” Jace tries without having a newspaper on him or normally reading one.

“Of course,” Alec says.

"Alright, listen, one night stand, unimportant, move on, it’s never going to happen again," Jace quickly dismisses.

“Mmm, of course,” Alec repeats and takes another spoonful of yoghurt. He takes his time, long enough for Jace to relax and enter the room with his guard down. “Does he agree?”

“If he doesn’t, he’s a complete idiot,” Jace complains.

“But isn’t that what you like about him?” Alec teases.

”Alec! No!” Jace almost yells, just in time for Izzy to hear as she shuffles out of her room in her pajamas in her hunt for coffee.

”Did something happen?” she yawns, obviously still half asleep.

“I won the bet,” Alec tells her.

“Oh my god, you were betting?” Jace whines.

“Congratulations,” Izzy says without any emotion.

“What, aren’t you the least bit disappointed?” Alec asks.

“Not after a night like yesterday,” Izzy says and underlines her point by winking at him.

Alec rolls his eyes, but gets it.

Clary shows up in the door to Izzy’s room in a fuzzy, borrowed bathrobe. "What's going on, Izzy?" she asks and exclaims "Oh!" when she realizes they aren’t alone anymore. “Hey.” She smiles awkwardly, like she isn’t sure if she should think it’s embarrassing that she got caught, but as soon as she starts smiling, she can’t stop.

"Isn't she a cutie?" Izzy smiles with pride. "She's been smiling that much since she made it to the finale."

"Was yours as cute, Jace?" Alec teases. He gets Clary. It must be a giant load that’s been lifted from her shoulders. Alec looks so much forwards to just _knowing_ if he makes it to the finale or not.

"Oh my god, you're just jealous because you didn't get to do anything new last night," Jace exclaims.

Alec stares. "You think I'm jealous because I've _consistently_ been spending the night with the hottest guy at the show?"

"Well, uh," Jace eloquently explains.

"Besides, why have you been thinking enough about my sex life to conclude that we've run out of new things to try?" Alec asks. "Because first of all, none of your business and second of all, no."

"Why have I- _You're the one betting on **my** sex life!_" Jace yells.

"To be fair, that was my idea," Izzy admits.

"You two are the worst siblings ever!" Jace decides. "I'm gonna go sulk in my room."

"Remember we have our final dress rehearsal at five," Alec says.

"Also, the coffee will be done soon," Izzy adds.

"I'll get some when you two finish being annoying," Jace tells them before closing the door to his room after him with a loud bang.

The two remaining siblings smile proudly at each other.

"Pay up," Alec says.

***

It’s later that day and the final dress rehearsals for the second semi-finale are only moments from starting and Magnus is relaxing himself by straightening Alexander’s clothes, ironic as that may seem. Magnus doesn't get nerves, he doesn't, but it's... He's almost there. And Alexander has been worrying all week, which makes it hard to pretend the semi-finale isn't a big thing. Sure, this is only the dress rehearsal, but fuzzing about Alexander also makes him less worried and Alexander _definitely_ gets nerves. He doesn't seem to get how good his song is, how obvious it is he'll make it and he needs constant reassurance that he'll be fine, which Magnus is happy to give.

Clary drags Simon over to wish them good luck. She goes immediately for Izzy and greets her with a kiss, which means they must be significantly more official girlfriends than the day before. Magnus doesn't miss the way they pull away from Jace and Simon, while obviously, to him at least, trying to listen in or the way Alexander’s attention drifts from being worried to the two other boys. Magnus raises and eyebrow and Alexander nods. It seems Clary and Izzy weren't the only two people to get a relationship upgrade last night.

"So are we going to acknowledge it?" Simon asks. They were standing close enough that he was obviously talking to Jace, but far enough away that the tension between them was even more obvious, especially compared to their presumed distance the night before.

"What's there to acknowledge?" Jace shrugs, not actually looking at him. "It happened. Let's move on."

"What, you're afraid liking boys is going to ruin your cool guy image?" Simon challenges.

"Liking boys doesn't make me any less cool," Jace tells him, looking him straight in the eyes. "Slipping up and doing stuff with losers, on the other hand..."

Simon gasps offendedly. "Losers?" he repeats.

"Technically only one," Jace muses. "Getting it on with several losers at a time might make up for it."

"Urgh, you're the worst," Simon tells him.

"Bite me."

"I would, but I think you'd like that," Simon smirks.

Jace' mouth falls open in shock, then it turns into a smile. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I don't know, I've got a nerd cred to keep up. Can't keep going around with people who don't know the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek," Simon shrugs.

Jace looks like he can't decide if he wants to prove he knows or that he doesn't.

"They seem to be doing well," Magnus mutters to Alexander, who smiles.

"Yeah and as long as they aren't doing well enough that it'll mess up his performance tomorrow, they can do whatever they want," Alexander replies.

Magnus puts his arms on Alexander’s waist and inches him closer. "Do you have the same rules for your own performance?" he asks with a suggestive smile.

"And yours," Alexander tells him. "I am not going to be the reason you don't make it to the finale."

Magnus almost rolls his eyes, but yeah, no, he doesn't want to ruin this. Besides, celebrational sex is much more fun than preparational. "Fine, but I will let you know that a couple of well-placed hickeys would just improve my outfit."

Alexander swallows, his self-restraint obviously wavering. "We'll see," he finally says.

The rehearsal goes fine, of course, Magnus being his normal flamboyant self and owning his song. The Lightwoods do wonderfully as well and Magnus knows they'll make it. If only Alexander could share his certainty. The poor boy spends the rest of the day moments away from a panic attack, though very well hidden behind a mask of silence and glares. Magnus is thankful he is able to see through it as that lets him take care of Alexander the rest of the day and the next day as well. He finds that kissing him stops his brain from panicking and that's a fun way to spend the time anyway, so...

"Relax," Magnus whispers in his ear as they get ready for their semi-finale. "You'll be fine."

"I hope you're right," Alexander says, but he manages a smile that's only half fake, so Magnus counts that as a victory.

Magnus dominates his performance, has the crowd following his every move and loving him. The Lightwoods do amazing as well, Alexander finally relaxes once he starts singing. He knows his words, knows exactly what to do and both of his siblings trust him enough to let him shoot at them. He hits perfectly of course. The audience gasps as they're supposed to and no one gets hurt.

When the finalists are announced, the only thing that really surprises Magnus is how relieved he is that both he and the Lightwoods made it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promised I would finish this fanfic and I'm keeping that promise! If anyone got confused by the dates mentioned, they're from last year, which is still when this fic takes place. The next chapter, featuring the Eurovision finale, will be up in a couple of days as we get closer to this year's finale. Hope to see you then! :D  
> Thanks to Catneto for betaing


End file.
